I have collected many obituaries of genealogical interest over the past twenty years.I will be posting them on this blog as time allows. The majority of these obituaries are from early Arkansas Baptist newspapers and have been transcribed as written.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

In Lonoke, Ark, Sept. 4, of congestion of the brain, John
Presley Fletcher, son of Wm. P and Ella Fletcher, aged 3 years and 8 days.

The silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken, and
the spirit of little Jhonnie has winged its flight to the Paradise above. A
tender blossom has been taken from the chilling blasts of earth and
transplanted in the celestial gardens.

“But not in cruelty, not in wrath.

The Reaper came that day.

‘Twas an angel visited the green earth

And took the flower away.”

To the bereaved and grief stricken parents, I would fain to
offer words of consolation, but there is no healing for such wounds. save the
balm of Gilead so lavishly poured forth by the Great Physician. I can only
commend them to him who doeth all things well and who doth not willingly
afflict the children of men. May they be enabled to say, “The lord gave, and
the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” D.A.E.

At Prattsville, Ark., on 7th day of Feb., of
typhoid-pneumonia, Miss Barker Halbert, in the 42nd year of her age.
Miss Halbert was born in the State of Mississippi, in the year 1840. She moved
to this State with her parents when quite young and in the year 1859, professed
faith in Christ, and was baptized into the fellowship of Philadelphia church,
by Elder Joel Watson, she remained a consistent member until the day of her
death. In all her relations of Christian, sister or friend in all the varied
vocations of life, Miss Barker was the same genial, gentle spirit, the same
kind sister and affectionate friend. She leaves many brothers and sisters to
mourn her loss, but we feel assured that this separation will only be
temporary, and that her many friends will soon, yes possibly soon, meet her
where parting will be no more.
A. Baptist

Our deepest sympathy to Dr. T. B. Timms and his wife Mrs.
Mira Timms of New Edinburg, Ark., we record the death of their infant son, Ben
Timms, born April 23rd, 1882 and died Oct. 12, 1883. Ben was a
remarkably sprightly child and will be greatly missed. But God has taken him
home to rest with him forever.

Sister A. E. Lovelady was born the 4th
day of March, 1839 in Noxubee county, Mississippi. She professed religion in
her 14th year at a Methodist meeting held by Brothers Box and
Calloway, after which she joined the Missionary Baptist Church and was baptized
by Brother William Lloyed.

She was married to G.O. Lovelady the 23rd
day of March 1869. Then moved with her husband to Arkansas in March 1872 and
settled in Logan county, there she and her husband put their letters into the Missionary
Baptist church. There she lived until death.

The cold hand of death overtook her=August
19, 1883.

She and her husband lived together 24
years, 4 months and 27 days.

Sister Lovelady was a faithful member of
the church about 27 years, She was faithful unto death, and the good book says:
“ I will give thee a crown of Life,” Rev. 2:10. “ Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord from henceforth they may rest from their labors; and their works do
follow them.” Rev. 14:13.

Oh, blessed thought to the faithful
follower of Christ. When absent from the body they present with the Lord 2 Cor.
5:8.

Sister Lovelady was a good wife and a good
mother. She a husband and four dear children, and a host of friends to mourn
her loss, but we realize that our loss is her eternal gain,

Lizzie Toone, on the 4th instant at Plum Bayou,
Jefferson county, Ark., wife of George W. Toone, formerly of Tulip, Dallas
County, Ark,

The fatal malady was an ulcer in the stomach. Her sufferings
were long and painful; but she endured her afflictions with Christian fortitude
and resignation, and died triumphing in the faith and hope of the gospel.

Her husband and children have our sincere condolence. “We
sorrow not as those who have no hope” for ”Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord.”

Louisa M. Lang, wife of B.F. Lang, on the evening of July 17th,
after an illness of two weeks.

In the life and death of this dear sister, Jesus has had
another faithful and efficient witness, the effect of whose testimony will
continue while time shall last. Sister Lang leaves a sorrowing husband, and
four children, an aged mother, brothers and sisters to mourn her loss. She was
a member of Shiloh church; having professed faith in Christ more than twenty
years ago she joined the Missionary Baptist church, and has lived a life of
devotion to her church and the cause of Christ, is but to give utterance to a
truth well known by all who knew her. May God help us to imitate the many
Christian virtues of our departed sister. May our faith in Christ be as abiding
and our prospects for heaven ever as bright as were hers.

The New Friendship church has sustained a great loss as we
deem it in the death of Bro. James A. Barnes who died of Swamp Fever at this
residence in Saline county. He was one of the most active and working members
in the church; and a worthy and useful man in the community. We will miss him
greatly, and yet we are assured that our loss is his eternal gain. May the
bereaved wife and orphan children be blessed and comforted by him who is able
to “comfort us in all our afflictions.” A.T.

With a sad heart we chronicle the death of C.C. Robinson,
sheriff of Bradley county, who died on the 23rd of April. We have
known Mr. Robinson from a boy; and esteemed him highly. We tender our earnest sympathies
to his bereaved wife, and aged mother and other relatives.

Brother John Miller, aged 76 years and 8 months, died of
heart disease April 29, 1884. Brother Miller had long been a member of the
Baptist church, and will be greatly missed. He leaves a large circle of
brethren and friends to mourn his loss. But their loss is his eternal gain.

John Sidney Davis, Infant son and only child of Eld. L.R.B.
Davis and wife, was born Aug 23, 1884.

Little Sidney was a sweet child and his little feet will be
missed very much by the lamented parents; but he is not dead; he is only gone
before. The Lord had a right to take him, or he would not have done so. He
makes no mistakes. Precious little one! He knew no sin; he had no fears in
death, but with him death has lost its venom sting. His sun went down, while it
was yet day.

On the 25th day of June 1885, God in his
inscrutable providence saw fit to reclaim, and recall from the tenement of
clay, the spirit of Willie Ingram. In so doing he has claimed his own, will we
should at all times bow submissively. In Willie’s conduct, in attendance and
observance of the requirements of the Sabbath school we find an example worthy
of imitation. Having placed his faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, his death
was triumphant, While we part with him in sorrow, we feel that “our loss is his
eternal gain.” Therefore be it.

Resolved 1st, that we tender our sympathies to
his almost heat-broken mother and other relations in this, their sad bereavement.

2nd. That this preamble and resolutions be spread
upon the record of our Sabbath school, and that the secretary be instructed to
furnish the mother of the deceased with a copy thereof.

In Independence county, Arkansas December 30, 1885 Mrs. Cullins,
at the age of 29 years, 9 months and 21 days. She was the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Gay. She professed faith in Christ in 1874 and joined the Little Springs
Baptist Church in Sharp county, Arkansas. Her father moved to Big Bottom and
there she joined the arm of Center Grove Church and remained there until her
death. The church has lost a beloved member, but our loss is her eternal gain.
She left a father and brother and sisters to mourn her loss. O then let us be
ready when God shall call we must go.

Louisiana, daughter of Thomas and Nancy Vann, and wife of
James M Evans, was born December 17th, 1828, in Edgecomb county,
North Carolina, and in 1837 her parents moved with her to Haywood county,
Tennessee. In 1849, under the ministry of George H. Thomas, pastor of the
Baptist Church worshipping at Zion, she was convicted of sin, and while at home
she obtained a hope in Christ, and received a baptism at the hands of this
pastor and united herself with the church at Zion. And on the 23rd
of December 1851, she married her now bereaved husband, Jas. Evans, who in
November 1866, moved to White county, in this state and settled near El Paso,
uniting with Antioch church, where she remained until the day of her death, May
the 28th, 1874. She had a long and protracted illness which is
common in cases of consumption and was closely confines to her room for six
moths before her death. Notwithstanding her afflictions were long and severe,
she bore them with fortitude and patience, and was perfectly submissive, and on
being interrogated in regard to her future prospects she always manifested that
hope that ever characterizes the Christian, and in view of that hope her
husband has selected, as a suitable text for her funeral the 24th-25th
verses of the eighth chapter of Romans. Sister Evans was the mother of ten
children, two of whom died in infancy, leaving four girls and four boys with
the bereaved husband to mourn her loss. Weep, not husband, for while you are
here to watch over the eight children living, she has gone to join the two in
heaven, Remember that Christ said, “ I am the resurrection and the life.” C.